Such a question does invite light hearted answers and fanciful notions that one could only imagine. However, this question may be more relevent, in light of the push for same sex marriages and how people wish to define or re-define marriage. After all, there was a time in my life that same sex marriage was an absurd notion by both heterosexuals and homosexuals alike.

Mine too, Joseph. The pace in which homosexuality has become normalized in the West has been extremely rapid.

I cannot think of any other group that socially advanced as quickly in human history.

Now on to polygamy: given that it is often used, in practice, to subjugate women, polygamy should not be considered for legalization unless the age of marriage was raised to 18, nationwide.

Even then, I'm not sure I would agree to its legalization. But I would certainly insist that a higher marriage age be a prerequisite. We simply cannot tolerate men accumulating harems of emotionally-vulnerable 16 year old girls.

I agree with truevyne... one wife is more than enough for me!But from a biblical perspective, polygamy was common in the Old Testament, even with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. And they didn't seem to have a problem with having children by other non-spouses. When Did God decide it had to be just one man & one woman, tied together in the holy bonds of matrimony?

That's a possible example. But I think that the South African experience is more akin to a people overthrowing foreign conquerors, than a whole social category of persons becoming recognized as legitimate.

Anyway, South Africa was trying to be a Western country, when its values of equality and social justice were very far behind the rest of the West. The idea that racial minorities should not be oppressed was not a very new one.

To contrast with the homosexual experience, it was only very recently that homosexuality was considered a criminal and/or diseased activity. Except for occasional historical outliers, homosexuality as always been seen as something ghastly.

The difference between being Black (in America) in 2009 and in 1909 is less severe than being an open homosexual in 2009 and 1909.

isn't having multiple wives called polygyny? Polygamy is just the general state of having multiple spouses, the norm is having multiple wives but to be specific the term for having multiple wives is polygyny.